


In Care of You

by LucindaAM



Series: A Day in the Life [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Light Swearing, Multi, No Smut, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26827129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LucindaAM/pseuds/LucindaAM
Summary: You're sick and miserable and just want some gosh-dang shut eye. Too bad the two super soldier's you love with all your heart are too busy trying to take care of you to notice.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader, Steve Rogers/Reader
Series: A Day in the Life [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946242
Comments: 17
Kudos: 103





	In Care of You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Thanks Annael150 for the prompt! LOVED it. :D

Warm hands were on your face and they felt good against your clammy skin. You leaned into them. A deep chuckle sounded, and you reluctantly pried your eyes open. Steve was sitting on your bed, looking over you with a fond eye. “Mornin’ doll. How are you feelin’?” He asked. 

You just groaned in response. 

Steve chuckled and bent down to press a kiss to your fevered forehead. “I’m going to go get you something to eat, sweetheart. Don’t go anywhere.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” You coughed, wriggling further into your blanket cocoon. 

Steve left and your eyes had just slid shut again when another deep chuckle sounded in the room. Your eyes flew open to see Bucky standing in the doorway. “Hey, doll. How you feelin’?” 

You rubbed your eyes. “There an echo in here?” You tried to tease. You coughed even harder, your body spasming awkwardly on the bed. 

Bucky frowned and stepped further into the room. “That cough doesn’t sound good, doll.” He said, digging through the blankets to find you. He clutched your waist and forced you to sit against the headboard. You groaned and swatted at his hands feebly. He ignored you. “Come on, sweetheart, you’ll feel better if you sit up.” 

He adjusted the blankets around you until you were more or less propped up to his satisfaction. Then he pressed his flesh hand to your head. “You’re burnin’ up, doll. I’m going to get you something to break your fever.” 

You mumbled something incoherently and watched as he walked out of the room. As soon as he left, you flopped back over in the bed, your back pressed against the headboard still. 

You were just drifting off to sleep again when Steve returned. He took in your slumped form and smiled softly. “Bucky tryin’ to get you to sit up, huh? He used to do that to me too. I know you want to lay down, sweetheart, but you’ve got to sit up and eat something.” He said, setting the tray of food he’d brought with him on the dresser before he moved over to you. He tugged on your arms gently and you shook your head and groaned. 

“I know you don’t want to, sweetheart, but you’ll feel better if you do.” 

You pulled your arms out of his grasp and curled them under your body protectively. Your stomach and head hurt, you were somehow too cold and too hot, and you kept getting a bloody nose, although the soldiers didn’t know about that last one. You’d done a pretty good job of hiding the evidence if you did say so yourself. What you wanted was to be left alone. You were just so tired . . . 

Steve sighed and glanced at the tray of food and then down at your pathetic form again. 

Bucky slid into the room behind him. “Told you she wasn’t going to want to eat, punk.” He said smugly. 

Steve rolled his eyes. 

Bucky came to the other side of the bed. “Doll, I brought you some medicine JARVIS recommended. You’ve got to sit up to take it though.” 

You shook your head weakly. 

Steve sighed. “I told you, Buck. She’s not gonna take that.” 

Bucky glared at Steve over your head. “Who took care of who in the forties, punk? I know what I’m talking about. Besides, medicine has gotten much better since our day. She’ll be fine in no time.” 

“Look at you actin’ like you know what’s best. You forget you weren’t the only one to take care of me. Ma’ helped when she could. And I did fine on my own when neither of you could.” 

Bucky rolled his eyes. The most emotion Steve had seen from the man in almost a week now. “Yeah. Sneakin’ outta the house when a stiff wind could blow you over just so’s you could look for work when your doc specifically told you not to; you really knew how to take care of yourself Stevie.” 

Steve jaw ticked and he turned back to your miserable form. You were shuffling the blankets off now as a hot-flash rolled through you. 

“Come on, sweetheart. You gotta eat somethin’.” Steve said gently, reaching out a hand to stroke your face tenderly. 

You shook your head weakly. “Too hot.” You coughed out. 

Bucky jumped to his feet. “I’ll get some crackers for you instead.” 

“I can do it.” Steve said, jumping to his feet to. 

Bucky didn’t dignify that with a response before he turned and walked out of the room. Steve raced after him and you heard the two arguing between themselves about what you needed most. You groaned and pushed yourself to your shaking feet as you felt a pressure in your nose start building. You shuffled to the bathroom and locked yourself in. 

You glanced in the mirror. You looked like hell. Dark circles lined your eyes. Your skin was flushed and clammy. You looked like you hadn’t brushed your hair in weeks mostly because you hadn’t brushed your hair in at least a week. You groaned again and grabbed a wad of toilet paper, pressing it under your nose before you tilted you head back. You stood that way for a long minute, clinging to the counter in the bathroom for dear life as a sense of vertigo washed through you, trying to convince you that the room was spinning. 

When you finally felt the bleeding stop, you mopped up your face and tossed all evidence into the toilet before flushing it. You turned on the sink and splashed some cold water on your face before you turned and opened the door. 

You stumbled back a step. 

Steve and Bucky were both standing right outside. Bucky’s face was expressionless though his arms were crossed over his chest. Steve was standing more relaxed, although his jaw was ticking and his eyes looked worried. 

“Don’t be weird.” You chastised weakly, trying to slip past them. You didn’t get very far. Instead two sets of hands reached out and plucked you off the floor faster than you could track. 

You suddenly found yourself cradled between two human furnaces who were glaring at each other over your head. 

“I can walk.” You mumbled. 

They ignored you. 

“I’ve got her.” Steve insisted, pulling you closer to his chest. 

Bucky shook his head. “You were in the middle of those reports. I can watch her.” 

The heat the two were emitting was normally something you loved about the soldiers, but right now it was threatening to shatter the last of your sanity. You rolled your shirt up, leaving your aching stomach exposed. 

“You don’t have to coddle me.” You argued weakly. 

“She needs to eat.” Steve said. 

“I’ll feed her.” Bucky retorted. 

“Stop . . .” 

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be fed.” Steve bit out. 

Two sets of eyes turned to you then and Steve opened his mouth to ask you what you thought when his eyes drifted down to the bare patch of skin at your navel. 

His eyes went wide and his face paled. 

“I just want to sleep!” You cried out. You blinked away in the flash of an eye leaving two panicked soldiers behind. 

“Bucky . . .” Steve choked out. 

“I saw it Stevie . . .” Bucky said, panic evident in his tone of voice. 

“Where would she have gone?” Steve raced out of the bedroom, Bucky right on his heels. 

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t know that she was thinkin’ straight.” He said. 

Steve ran his hands through his hair, frantically. “They can fix her, right? They have cures for this sort of thing nowadays. She’ll be fine . . . right?” 

Bucky glanced at Steve who was seconds away from hyperventilating. He pushed to his feet and grabbed his friend by the shoulders. “Stevie. Hey. Breathe, pal. You’ve got to breathe.” 

Steve stared at Bucky and obediently sucked in a breath. 

Bucky smiled encouragingly through his own panic. “The AI . . . this, JARVIS. He can find her, right?” 

Steve nodded choppily. “Yeah. Of course. Right. JARVIS. Hey, JARVIS?” 

The AI was oddly silent, and Steve felt his heart pound into overdrive. 

Bucky could practically hear Steve’s panic and he forced Steve to sit down. “Hey, punk. Just breath. You ain’t good for anything if you’re too busy panicking.” 

Steve nodded slowly and took a couple of deep breaths. “Typhoid, Buck. She has typhoid. How’d neither of us see it sooner?” 

Bucky shook his head slowly. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen anyone with it, Stevie. It’s not the killer it used to be.” 

Steve nodded slowly. “Right. Right. She’ll be fine. We just . . . we just need to find her.” 

“Well, I know where to start.” Bucky said. Steve glanced at him hopefully, still caught up in trying to wrangle back his anxiety. Bucky reached into his pocket and sent a quick message to Natasha. The spy responded almost immediately. 

‘Get to my apartment. Now.’ 

Bucky glanced at the message, his brows furrowed. “Come on, punk. We gotta go.” 

Bucky didn’t wait for Steve to ask questions before he was on his feet and out the door. Steve raced after him. 

The ride to Natasha’s apartment was a tense affair with both men listing every place they could think of that you’d gone to. Neither wanted to think about the most obvious choice; that you’d gone to the void you traveled through with your powers. For some reason they felt like if you had, you weren’t going to come back. 

Thankfully, the elevator dinged open on Nat’s floor, the sound putting an end to their spiraling thoughts. 

Bucky reached the door first and reached his metal hand out, ready to bang on the door but before he could land a single blow, the door swung open. 

“Where . . .” Steve started. 

Nat held up a finger and hissed; “Shhhhh!” with a murderous expression on her face. 

She glanced over her shoulder and the two soldiers followed her train of sight to see you lying peacefully on the couch, sound asleep. 

“Doll . . .” Steve breathed, taking a step forward. 

Natasha filled the doorway again, blocking Steve’s entrance. The super soldier glared at her. She glared right back. 

Eventually, Steve’s eyes drifted to the ground and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. 

“Let us in.” Bucky demanded. 

Natasha quirked an eyebrow at him before she pushed out into the hallway with the soldiers and slid the door shut behind her. “What the hell did you do to that poor girl?” She hissed under her breath. 

Steve’s eyebrows rose. “US? We were just trying to take care of her.” 

Natasha scoffed. “Yeah? That why she showed up here said; ‘JARVIS, cut off all communication with the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb till I wake up. I don’t want them to find me.’ before she turned to me and cried; ‘They won’t let me sleep, Nattie!’?” 

Steve glanced down at the ground guiltily. Bucky glared agitatedly at the spy, his jaw ticking. 

The elevator dinged on the floor, interrupting the tension filled stand off and Bruce stepped off with a medical bag in his hands. He took a few steps before he noticed the hallway wasn’t as empty has he’d thought. He froze and adjusted his glasses as he chuckled nervously. “It’s a real party, huh?” He asked. 

Nat smiled at him. “Go on in, Bruce. She’s on the couch.” 

Bruce nodded and awkwardly slid around the trio, doing his best to keep the Hulk at bay as Steve and Bucky shot incredulous glances his way. 

“He can go in, but we can’t?” Steve demanded. 

“HE’s a doctor, moron. Remember?” Nat said, rolling her eyes. 

“Not that kind of doctor, though.” Bruce muttered under his breath as he slid into the apartment. Three sets of ears ignored him. 

“We should take her to medbay, Nat. She’s got . . .” Steve was arguing. 

“Typhoid. No shit, Sherlock.” Nat said. “Why do you think I called Bruce up here?” 

“But . . .” 

Nat shook her head. “Taking her downstairs is only going to expose more people. Besides, she said she wanted to sleep. She’s not going to do that tied to a bed down in medbay.” 

Bucky looked ready to argue and Natasha interrupted before he could. “Listen. I texted you to come up so you could see with your own eyes that she’s here and she’s safe. That’s as far as this conversation is going to go. Go back to your apartment. If she wants to go back downstairs when she wakes up, I’m not going to stop her. Just for Thor’s sake; stop smothering her. She’s not an invalid.” 

Natasha sent one last glare in their direction before she opened the door and slid back into the apartment. She shut her door in their faces. 

Steve and Bucky glared at the door for a long minute before Bucky put a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Come on, punk. Let’s go home.” 

Steve sighed but allowed Bucky to lead him back to the elevator. 

Steve and Bucky walked into the apartment in silence, both caught up in world of their own. Steve was remembering his own bout of Typhoid and how it had nearly ended his life almost a hundred years ago. Bucky was kicking himself for not having seen the signs sooner. 

“Thought they had vaccines for this sort of thing.” He muttered under his breath. 

Steve sighed. “They don’t always work.” He said. 

The two of them moved on in silence, puttering around the apartment, tidying things that didn't need to be tidied and cleaning things that had already been cleaned. 

Eventually, the two silently and wordlessly slipped into their rooms to get ready for the night. Natasha still hadn’t called to tell them how you were feeling and you hadn’t returned. The worry for each was high, but they focused on the knowledge that Tony and the rest of the team would spare no expense or stop at anything to make sure you healed properly. 

Without discussing it beforehand, both of them ended up in your bed, a you shaped gap in between. 

They stared up at the ceiling unable to sleep. 

“It’s harder being on this side of it.” Steve said quietly, his mind still stuck in the past. 

Bucky let out a long breath. “Yeah. It is.” He agreed simply. 

Eventually, the quiet beating of both their hearts lulled them each into a restless sleep. 

Bucky woke with a start. There was a sudden sense that all was not as it had been moments ago. He kept his body frozen, though his hand did drift under the pillow to clench the gun he’d hidden there. Wheezing breaths had him roll into his side to see you lying between him and Steve. Steve had already rolled over, still unconscious. One of his arms drifting over your stomach to pull your back flush against his chest. 

You were smiling tiredly at Bucky. “What are you doin’ here, sweetheart. It’s the middle of the night.” Bucky whispered softly, reaching over to trail a hand down your face. 

Your eyes fluttered closed and for a minute, Bucky thought you’d fallen asleep but then you reached a hand out and tried to weakly tug him to you. “’M cold.” You murmured. 

Bucky couldn’t help but smile softly as he crossed the distance and pressed himself against your body. You sighed in contentment as his warmth soothed your aching body. You burrowed your head in his chest. 

“Thank you, baby.” You murmured as you drifted off. 

Bucky waited until he knew you were asleep before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “Anytime, doll.” 

He fell back asleep with you in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> I did a lot of research into Typhoid for this fic. While there was a better understanding of what it was and how to prevent it by the time World War II ended (and Bucky and Steve subsequently disappeared from history) it was still a pretty big problem that caused a lot of deaths. 
> 
> Had to pick something dramatic to really freak the two men lost in time out. Had to get that angst somehow.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed it!


End file.
